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Tag: book review

I mentioned recently that for what seems like the first time in as many years as Betty has been alive, I’ve been able to occasionally sit down with a book and read it without being interrupted every 30 seconds. It seems that the folks at Runner’s World are a bunch of psychics because it was right around that time that I received an email with a great opportunity to read and review a couple new books! And I was lucky enough to be picked!

The first book I had the pleasure of reviewing is Running Strong: The Sports Doctor’s Complete Guide to Staying Healthy and Injury-Free for Life by Dr. Jordan Metzl (and with Claire Kowalchik).

If you’ve been reading my blog over the past couple weeks I’m sure you will agree that this could not have come at a better time for me. If you haven’t, here’s a summary….I’ve been having a really hard time “staying healthy and injury-free”. Actually that would be a huge understatement.

In Summary

Dr. Metzl is an athlete. As a 32-time marathoner and 12-time Ironman triathlete, he knows what it’s like to push your body to the limit. With all that under his belt, he is also obviously no stranger to injury and as a sports doctor he is no stranger to treating injuries that many of us are all-too familiar with. That’s why he became a doctor…because he knows how terrible it is to be sidelined from the sport you love.

I liked him immediately.

As the title suggests, Running Strong highlights everything that I would ever want to know about staying injury-free, but it is SO MUCH MORE than that.. Dr. Metzl profiles different types of runners and what each of these could expect to take away from the book. I saw myself in a couple of these categories and after reading further was so thrilled to find that he was right.

The book begins anatomy lesson and overview of healthy running mechanics and how the way that you run could be damaging your “kinetic chain”. We then visit a comprehensive list of common injuries, covering everything from shin splints to black toenails. It’s presented in an easy-to-follow format complete with illustrations, suggestions of exercises that you can do at home to help heal, strengthen, and prevent further injury to the affected area, and even uses the brand new Blipp technology. Blipp allows you to scan pages with a free phone app and suddenly it’s like you are transported directly to Dr. Metzl’s office! Running Strong is the first running/fitness book to utilize this awesome video technology and it can be found on many of the pages throughout.

Running Strong has sections on nutrition, the importance of sleep, foam roller exercises, maximizing your running (even catering specifically to women and men because we all know there are some major differences to how we run), how to best prepare for race day and how not to bonk when you get there. He introduces the IronStrengthWorkout for Runners: an intense full body workout specially designed to train your muscles with running-specific movements with each exercise illustrated with diagrams and Blipp video. I’m excited to add IronStrength into my routine.

He even has training plans for various races distances and every ability. And that doesn’t cover all of it. This book truly has everything I would have ever wanted to know and then a whole list of other things I would have never thought to ask.

My Thoughts

If you couldn’t guess, I think Running Strong is the best thing since sliced bread. Dr. Metzl rocks. It’s written in a friendly, easy-to-follow style that I had a hard time putting down; I even read up on a bunch of injuries that don’t apply to me right now and I hope never do. So if anyone has any questions about Plantar Fasciitis let me know.

One of my favorite things is that it encourages active recovery from injury. For someone that finds sitting down to be impossible, but is constantly being told by my entire family to stop moving around so much, I felt relieved that Dr. Metzl wants me to keep moving. I’ll take a break from running if I have to, but there are so many other things I could be doing and he has lots of options for me.

It is the kind of book that will live within easy reach of me at all times. I have an e-copy on my phone and over the past week I’ve found myself using it on numerous occasions. Now that I’m trying to rework the end of my marathon training plan a bit to make room for all my current problems, I’ve been referring to the training plans, suggestions for pain relief, workout modification and the strengthening exercises.

Being hurt is terrible and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but I’m so glad to have received this book when I did and feel confident that his claims in the title are true. I could definitely see myself staying healthy and injury-free now that I have this resource and I think any runner regardless of fitness level could benefit greatly from it!

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Running Strong: The Sports Doctor’s Complete Guide to Staying Healthy and Injury-Free for Life for yourself, it can be found HERE.

Runner’s World provided me with a copy of Running Strong to review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own.

I’ve never been given a copy of my x-rays after a doctor visit before! Obviously the first thing I should do is post them on the Internet. Right?

Anyway, I’m fascinated by this kind of thing. This all looks fine apparently. Next step is a (yet unscheduled) MRI because whatever my problem is is soft-tissue related. I knew that already so getting an x-ray was kind of pointless, but I guess it’s nice to know that my arm is still attached to my body and that I still have bones and everything.

Thank you to everyone for the supportive comments that you’ve been leaving on my blog! I’m still feeling very, very sore, but I dare say better than last week. This week there has been some treadmilling, some cutting down of training plan daily mileage, some taking it easy and NO CROSS TRAINING unless you count gentle stretching. I miss yoga, barre, spin, and getting crazy on a surfboard, but I just can’t right now. Child’s pose is my BFF.

Also I’ve been picked to do a couple of book reviews. The first one?

Perfect timing. I need all the help I can get.

Have you ever gotten any take-home x-rays? What were they of? Have you read this book before?

I’m just going to come right out and say it. I’m not the best cook. I am supremely jealous of anyone who can just take a bunch of random stuff out of their cabinets and make dinner with it without even consulting a recipe. I even get confused by recipes sometimes. For this reason, my husband does most of the more involved cooking in our house and I stick to simple things like baking chicken and boiling water. Thankfully, I’m mostly cooking for a two year old and she is perfectly happy with my macaroni and cheese.

(Which actually I make myself…she doesn’t like boxed macaroni and will only eat the cheese sauce that I make from scratch.)

Anyway, as generally not good it at as I am, I do like to try. So when I was presented with the opportunity to receive and review a copy of Lorna Jane’s new cookbook, NOURISH: A Fit Woman’s Cookbook, I was really excited. Ever since I attended Fit Foodie a couple weeks ago, I’ve been much more open to expanding my horizons when it comes to cooking and eating delicious food.

I’m a big fan of what Lorna Jane stands for. The founder, Lorna Jane Clarkson, is a former fitness instructor who is best known for her line of women’s athletic apparel and her LiveLoveNOURISH initiative that motivates women all over the world to adopt a healthy lifestyle. I love to inspire and to be inspired! And I know I just talked about clothes on here yesterday, but yeah. Her clothing line is SERIOUSLY cute. Especially her yoga stuff.

I liked this book right away. Not only does it showcase a great many recipes, organized by meals (even smoothies, tonics, snacks, and dips!), but it also includes some very helpful tips straight from the brain of Lorna Jane. For example: her eat less, more often philosophy, lists of her preferred “real foods”, fruits and veggies broken down by the best season to enjoy them, and even suggestions on where to shop for fresh foods without breaking the bank. She even includes a variety of eating plans to get you started on the journey to healthier eating. As a print designer myself, I was also very impressed by the design of the book; well organized, graphically attractive, and with food photography that looks good enough to eat right off the page.

For me personally, there is only one real downside to this book: It seems that quite a few of the recipes – especially the dinner offerings – are rather time-intensive and/or not at all toddler-friendly, though they definitely sound delicious to me! Many nights I’m already struggling to throw dinner together for Betty when we get home and I don’t really want to spend the limited amount of time we have together before bedtime in the kitchen hand-making quinoa pilaf for an hour from scratch and then she won’t even eat it. That said, there are enough recipes to choose from– such as many of the snacks –that I can make ahead of time to grab on the go and she might actually like them too.

I decided to try out one of these snack recipes to go along with my review: Fruit Chips. As a newly minted lover of apples I knew that I could enjoy these and they would make a fun treat to pack in Betty’s school lunch. Plus the preparation sounded about as easy as setting my oven and leaving them in there to bake for awhile, freeing me up for some fun with Play Doh in the other room.

FRUIT CHIPS

Ingredients:

1 medium apple

1 medium pear (firm)

2 tsp pure maple syrup

1/2 tsp mixed spice. WTF is “mixed spice”? I went digging through my spice cabinet and found a container of ALLSPICE. I’m pretty sure they are the same thing and even if they aren’t, the allspice worked out great.

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 250°F (120°C). Slice the apple crossways into thin slices. Slice the pear lengthways. She suggests using a mandoline or a v-slicer, but I don’t have either of those apparatuses at my house. Okay who am I kidding…I don’t know what either of those apparatuses are. So I used a knife. It worked out fine.

Remove all seeds from the fruit. Combine syrup and spice and carefully coat the fruit slices with this mixture. Place in a single layer on a wire rack over an oven tray. Bake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes or until dried and crisp. Cool. AND ENJOY!

Ohhh and I did enjoy. These chips are AWESOME! Crunchy like a potato chip, sweet and a little spicy all at once. I managed to stop myself before eating all of them because really they weren’t supposed to be for me. This recipe was so easy and hands-off that I will probably be making it a couple times a week.

BONUS: My house smelled phenomenal for like an entire day after I made them.

Next on the agenda? DESSERT. Because…DESSERT. This cookbook has some really delicious dessert options, a few of which sounded pretty easy to make. Because it’s 500 degrees outside right now I figured a cool treat would be best:

Chocolate, Banana, & Almond Yoghurt Pops

I am just NOT a food photographer.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsweetened Greek yoghurt

2 tbsp natural almond butter

1 tbsp pure maple syrup

2 tbsp cacao powder

1 small banana, sliced thinly

Preparation:

Preheat NOTHING! These go straight into the freezer.

Combine half the yoghurt (I’m only spelling it that way because she does), almond butter, and half the maple syrup in a small bowl. In another small bowl combine the rest of the yoghurt, the remaining maple syrup, and the cacao powder.

Now here’s where things went bananas. Or NOT bananas. In half of the molds, I added the thin banana slices along with layering the almond butter and chocolate mixtures. In the other half…no bananas because I want to eat these too and I’m allergic. I may have also layered some of both of these mixtures into my mouth as I worked.

Push in sticks and FREEZE! I froze mine overnight and the above not-to-attractive photo is the results in the morning. The light yoghurt is the almond butter and the dark is the chocolate (as if I really needed to explain that). Betty saw that I was taking pictures of them and tried to grab them off the plate, but – sorry, kiddo – not at 7:30am. Though I guess it IS yoghurt and bananas so what harm could it do. Anyway we had them for dessert last night.

SURVEY SAYS?

NOM. She ate that whole popsicle all by herself, proclaiming the whole time that it was “yummy in her tummy”. After I put her to bed, I ended up making more because they were easy, fun, and we all want another one after dinner tonight.

This is just a taste (pun intended) of the recipes you will find in Lorna Jane’s Nourish cookbook.

Wouldn’t it be cool to win one for yourself?

You’re in luck! Join @FitApproach and @LornaJaneActive TONIGHT at 9pm EST for a Twitter party using hashtags #LiveLoveNOURISH, #Sweatpink, and #LornaJane for your chance to win to a copy of Nourish and a gift card to shop in Lorna Jane’s store!

You can RSVP for the party HERE and get started on Twitter with the tweet below!

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Hello!

Mom, graphic designer, yogi, and runner {always in progress}. Fluent in sarcasm. Running shoe and lip gloss hoarder. Loves wine, coffee, power tools, and horror movies. Spends WAY too much money at Target. Sharing my journey one mile at a time and hoping that I can motivate others along the way!

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